72 Hours
by ellenemi
Summary: A lot can happen during 72 hours. Lives can be changed forever. MA
1. Max's POV

Disclaimer: I don't own them Jim does  
  
**72 Hours**  
  
_By EMI_  
  
Max's P.O.V

**_72 Hours ago I made a decision that has changed the lives of everyone._**  
  
Y'know sometimes I have these really intense dreams, where I'm stalking through dense jungles or running across the open plains. Hunting. Searching for my prey.  
  
And other times I dream of being surrounded by warm, fur covered bodies; and I'll wake up with the scent of musk, and wet fur in the air. They're so vivid that they almost seem real. The really strange thing is though, that I actually feel comforted and content when I awake from these dreams as though the kitty-kat inside me has been soothed; and I find myself almost struggling to stop from purring my pleasure. 

**_72 hours ago I admitted to myself that if I wanted a future, it wouldn't be with the man that I thought it would._**

**__**  
  
That feeling of comfort and warmth is how I feel now; which is strange in itself because I've done anything but sleep in the last three days. 

_**72 Hours ago I made my choice.**_

I'm laying here with strong, warm arms wrapped around me, with the scent of musk, man and cat in the air. And I can feel the heartbeat of the person next to me, beating a steady rhythm in time with my own. In this moment I feel warm, safe, protected as though I've been thoroughly loved.

I haven't felt this way since before I escaped from Manticore. I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised that I feel like this. Not when I'm with him.

After all as a child the one person who could always make feel this way; who would sit up with me all night, when I couldn't sleep and make shadow puppets for me on the walls, was the brother of the man whose holding me close. Protecting me even in his sleep.

I turn my head to the side, and watch him. In slumber he looks peaceful, as though the mask he wears during the day has been dropped and the real man can be seen.

I try to remember if I've ever seen him look this way when he's been awake; and I can only think of three occasions since meeting him, that I've seen him without his mask.

**_72 Hours ago I broke a man's heart for the second time._**

I smile slightly to myself as I feel him shift in his sleep, nuzzling his face into my neck; and I realise that I've been stroking his arm while I've been lost in thought. I take the time to actually study him, to trace my fingers softly over his face, caressing his cheek and brushing his lips. Those same lips that are usually curved into that annoying smirk of his are now a soft sweet smile instead.

And without realising it I find myself raising my hand to my own lips, only to find the self same smile curving my own.

**_72 Hours ago I accepted who and what I am._**

Y'know I've been out in the world ten years longer than him; and yet I haven't actually felt free; not really anyway. I've tried to fit in, to be a 'normal' girl and not a freak. But I've never really succeeded.

Oh for a while I was able to convince myself that I was; that by helping Logan with his Eyes Only missions, that I could somehow make up for the horror's that I committed on Manticore's behalf as a child.

**_7_****_2 Hours ago I was able to distinguish between the fairytale and the reality._**

I even convinced myself that what I felt for him was more than just friendship; that I loved him as much as he loved me.

For a long time I didn't realise how miserable I was making myself, by trying to be the girl he wanted, hiding those parts of myself that I knew he'd never be able to really accept or understand, no matter how much he loved me. I just couldn't see it, almost as though I didn't want to see it.

**_72 Hours ago the reality became my fairytale._**

No matter how much I've fought it, to deny that part of myself that craves his nearness, that relishes the arguments and the fights.

I've finally realised that it's these same fights and arguments that have made me 'ordinary', to feel like the 'Normal' girl that I've always wanted to be; and was never able too, whenever I was with Logan.

**_72 Hours ago I went into heat._**

With Logan it was always long soulful looks. Candlelit pasts diners. Miscommunication and trying to make something more out of a friendship, than what was actually there.

With Alec it's always been passionate, physical both mentally and emotionally.

We've driven each other to distraction and still we've kept coming back for more. He comprehends me and accepts me for me.

And I've never once had to hide any part of myself from him. In fact it's scary sometimes just how in tune with each other we actually are. It's as though we're two sides of the same coin.

As though we were made for each other.

And knowing Manticore we probably were.

**_72 Hours ago Alec finally became my mate._**


	2. Alec's POV

Disclaimer: I don't own them, Jim does  
  
**72 Hours**  
  
**_Alec's POV_**

**_72 Hours ago she changed everyone's lives._**  
  
I'm laying here watching her sleep; a rarity for her I know, because unlike me she doesn't have the luxury of oblivion that sleep can sometimes bring.

I'm watching her trying to figure out why she looks so different. Although I figure three days of non-stop, mind-blowing sex, will make even the most uptight and tense person smile. But I don't think that's the reason she seems to have changed.

**_72 Hours ago she changed my life._**

**__**

Change... That's what has been the cornerstone of our relationship, our friendship, our whatever-the-hell we've been to each other; since before we even met. She changed my life for the first time, the night she and the others, my twin included escaped from Manticore.  
  
She changed it again the day she returned and blew up the D.N.A lab; and I changed hers the night I walked into her cell. 

She changed my life yet again when she named me; giving me back a piece of myself that I hadn't even realised that I'd been missing.

**_72 Hours ago I watched as she ripped a man's still beating heart from his chest; smashed it under her boot and walked away without a backward glance._** **_  
_**  
I gently pull her closer, tighter against my body; seeking the warmth and shelter from her that I have craved for months; and for which she has denied me until now. 

Nuzzling my face in her hair, I take in her scent. That undeniably unique mix of aroma's that have tantalised my mind, since the first time I met her. That sweet heady scent that I've never been able to describe, but which even as a child back at Manticore; before I'd even ever heard of X5-452, of Max; would drift into my unconscious mind and somehow soothe my heart. Making it possible to dream a dreamless sleep, where I could forget all the atrocities that I'd committed on Manticore's behalf during the day.

**_72 Hours ago I watched as a rosy flush blossomed on her face; and the heady aroma of her pheromones invaded my senses._**

**__**

Gently I kiss the curve of her neck and watch as a small smile curves her full lips, as she instinctively moves herself closer into my embrace. With difficulty I try and suppress the smirk that I can feel tugging at the corners of my lips. If someone had told me five days ago that I would be laying here, wrapped around her small lithe body like this; I would have laughed in their face and asked them what they'd been smoking.

**_72 Hours ago she walked towards me, looked me square in the eyes; leaned up and whispered in my ear the three words that I never thought I would ever hear her say._**

**__**

I look at this small bundle of hell-cat that I hold in my arms; and marvel at how this diminutive woman, has the power to rule my life, and doesn't even realise it. How when she smiles, I smile. When she laughs, I laugh. How when she's pain and hurting, all I want to do is gather her into my arms and hold her until the pain has gone away.  
  
I once told Logan that he was whipped, but if that's true; then I'm just as whipped just as much of a slave. A slave to my heart and to her's.

**_72 Hours ago Max went into heat._**

**__**

I can feel her warm breath caressing my skin; and I find myself running the our last few hour's together through my mind. Smiling at the memories of her thrashing beneath me, squeezing me; making me shudder into my release as she screams my name in pleasure… Pleasure that I gave her; that she's given me in return. I close my eyes at the images and smile.

**_72 Hours ago I watched as she finally accepted herself, accepted me, accepted us._**

**__**

I can feel her fingertips tracing the shape of my face; their gentle touch as she brushes them across my lips. I suppress a shudder as she slowly, soothingly strokes her small hand along my arm. Her touch is gentle, reverent as though she isn't even aware that she's doing it. I keep my eyes closed, not wanting to disturb her from whatever thoughts are running through her mind; not wanting to move past this single peaceful moment in our otherwise tumultuous lives. She shifts in my arms, as I feel her learning towards me, her hair brushes my chest just as her lips softly graze my ear; and she repeats those three little words that have given me so much joy, and happiness. So much contentment. 

"I choose you", she whispers, as she nips at my earlobe. Quickly I turn us over so that she's lying beneath me as I gaze down upon her face.

**_72 Hours ago I felt a burst of happiness wash over me, and fill my heart; taking the place of all the fear and loneliness that until that moment had resided there._**

**__**

She smiles up at me, with her heart there for me to see in her eyes. I silently watch as she reaches her hand up to caress my cheek and brush a lock of my hair behind my ear. "I choose you", she says again. "I choose you, Alec. I choose you". 

Leaning down to capture her lips, I find suddenly find myself not caring that were in the middle of a war. That were barricaded behind wire fences, or that were being hunted into extinction like animals. Because in this moment I finally feel free.

**_9 Months ago she changed my world when she set me free, when she set all of us free._**

**_72 Hours ago, she unlocked the cage that had surrounded my heart._**

**__**  
  
**_72 Hours ago she chose me as her mate._**


End file.
